Factors Constraining University for Development Studies in Community Engagement in Northern Ghana

University for Development Studies (UDS) was established in 1992 with an explicit mandate to blend its academic work with that of the community in order to provide constructive interaction for the total development of northern Ghana in particular, and the country as a whole. Past research has shown that UDS has appreciably linked its teaching, research, and service roles to the socio-economic needs of northern Ghana. This study sought to illuminate the key factors constraining the university in its community engagement programs. It employed an interpretive research paradigm through semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis. In all 20 participants were purposefully drawn from specific units within the university for the study. Results from the study showed that inadequate funding of community engagement activities by the national government and regional authorities, inadequate infrastructural development in northern Ghana, lack of ability and readiness of the regional economy to absorb university knowledge and graduates, lack of specific internal incentive structures to motivate academics to engage in activities of regional nature and unwillingness of some academics to engage in activities of regional nature serve as the key factors constraining the regional role of the university. The study, therefore, recommends that if UDS is recognized as a key player in the development of Northern Ghana, then, the national government, regional authorities, and university administrators need to create an enabling environment and put in place appropriate policy support structures to stimulate an effective engagement of the university with its surrounding communities. Keywords: Universities, community engagement, University for Development Studies, Ghan

Universities’ Role in Regional Development: A Case Study of University for Development Studies, Ghana

This study, employing an interpretive research paradigm, sought to investigate into how University for Development Studies (UDS) is responding to its regional development mandate with a specific focus on how it is responding to human capital development, innovation capabilities, and social and environmental development in northern Ghana. A study of this nature was deemed relevant and appropriate since UDS was established in 1992 under the PNDC Law 279 with an explicit mandate to blend its academic work with that of the community in order to provide constructive interaction between the two for the total development of northern Ghana. Despite the deplorable state of development in Northern Ghana, the regional development mandate of UDS in such a challenging environment has not attracted much attention in the literature. Findings from the study suggest that while UDS has appreciably linked its teaching, research, and service roles to the development needs of northern Ghana, it has a stronger link with the human capital development and social, cultural, and environmental development compared to developing the innovation capabilities of northern Ghana. It is, therefore, recommended that if UDS is seen as a key player in the development of Northern Ghana through its policy mandate, then, government and regional authorities need to create an enabling environment and put in place appropriate policy support structures to stimulate an effective engagement of UDS with the industrial sector and local businesses. Keywords: Universities, Regional Development, Human Capital Development, Innovation, Ghan

A Localization System for Optimizing the Deployment of Small Cells in 2-Tier Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Due to the ever growing population of mobile device users and expansion on the number of devices and applications requiring data usage, there is an increasing demand for improved capacity in wireless cellular networks. Cell densification and 2-tier heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are two solutions which will assist 5G systems in meeting these growing capacity demands. Small-cell deployment over existing heterogeneous networks have been considered by researchers. Different strategies for deploying these small-cells within the existing network among which are random, cell-edge and high user concentration (HUC) have also been explored. Small cells deployed on locations of HUC offloads traffic from existing network infrastructure, ensure good Quality of Service (QoS) and balanced load in the network but there is a challenge of identifying HUC locations. There has been considerable research performed into techniques for determining user location and cell deployment. Currently localization can be achieved using time dependent methods such as Time of Arrival (ToA), Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA), or Global Positioning Systems (GPS). GPS based solutions provide high accuracy user positioning but suffer from concerns over user privacy, and other time dependent approaches require regular synchronization which can be difficult to achieve in practice. Alternatively, Received Signal Strength (RSS) based solutions can provide simple anonymous user data, requiring no extra hardware within the mobile handset but often rely on triangulation from adjacent Base Stations (BS). In mobile cellular networks such solutions are therefore often only applicable near the cell edge, as installing additional BS would increase the complexity and cost of a network deployment. The work presented in this thesis overcomes these limitations by providing an observer system for wireless networks that can be used to periodically monitor the cell coverage area and identify regions of high concentrations of users for possible small cell deployment in 2-tier heterogeneous networks. The observer system comprises of two collinear antennas separated by λ/2. The relative phase of each antenna was varied using a phase shifter so that the combined output of the two antennas were used to create sum and difference radiation patterns, and to steer the antenna radiation pattern creating different azimuth positions for AoA estimation. Statistical regression analysis was used to develop range estimation models based on four different environment empirical pathloss models for user range estimation. Users were located into clusters by classifying them into azimuth-range classes and counting the number of users in each class. Locations for small cell deployment were identified based on class population. BPEM, ADEM, BUEM, EARM and NLOS models were developed for more accurate range estimation. A prototype system was implemented and tested both outdoor and indoor using a network of WiFi nodes. Experimental results show close relationship with simulation and an average PER in range estimation error of 80% by applying developed error models. Based on both simulation and experiment, system showed good performance. By deploying micro-, pico-, or femto-cells in areas of higher user concentration, high data rates and good quality of service in the network can be maintained. The observer system provides the network manager with relative angle of arrival (AoA), distance estimation and relative location of user clusters within the cell. The observer system divides the cell into a series of azimuthal and range sectors, and determines which sector the users are located in. Simulation and a prototype design of the system is presented and results have shown system robustness and high accuracy for its purpose

Aging and Health: An Examination of Differences between Older Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal People

The Aboriginal population in Canada, much younger than the general population, has experienced a trend towards aging over the past decade. Using data from the 2001 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) and the 2000/2001 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), this article examines differences in health status and the determinants of health and health care use between the 55-and-older Aboriginal population and non-Aboriginal population. The results show that the older Aboriginal population is unhealthier than the non-Aboriginal population across all age groups; differences in health status, however, appear to converge as age increases. Among those aged 55 to 64, 7 per cent of the Aboriginal population report three or more chronic conditions compared with 2 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population. Yet, among those aged 75 and older, 51 per cent of the Aboriginal population report three or more chronic conditions in comparison with 23 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population.Aboriginal people, health status, health care use

Social Learning: A Model for Policy Research

This paper concerns the question of how policy research can be made more useful in practice. Two types of policy research may be distinguished. The first is research on issues in the public realm and not addressed to a specific client. The "consumers" of this type of research -- those whom it stimulates to thought -- are other interested scholars and practitioners, and the arguments proceed from many different quarters and perspectives. Answers given in this context are neither right nor wrong: they merely illuminate an issue of public concern and enhance our understanding of it. In this special sense, policy research resembles, in Cohen and Garet's language, "a discourse about social reality -- a debate about social problems and their solutions". The second type of policy research does have a client and is therefore pitched to an existing social problem that is located within a specific policy environment. Although we recognize that the distinction we are attempting to draw is imprecise, we propose to deal in this paper with only the second type of policy research and further limit ourselves to social policy. Such research is bought and sold, but its results are rarely used in the solution of a problem. Our intention, then, is to find out why and in what circumstances this outcome is highly probable and what, if anything, might be done about it

Statistical Process Control Based Performance Evaluation of On-line Analysers

On-line analyzers can provide accurate and timely information for process control and monitoring. Statistical Process Control (SPC) techniques can be effectively utilized to support the development and maintenance of these tools. The D6299-10 ASTM standard details how on-line analyzers should be validated. The applicability of this standard is demonstrated through the analysis of industrial data collected from an on-line gas chromatograph. The results confirm that automatized SPC can effectively improve the reliability of advanced process control systems